The House of Commons will rise for the summer Thursday afternoon, after unanimously voting to push through some final pieces of legislation, including the government's controversial lawful access bill. MPs will return Sept. 21. At a press conference outside the House of Commons on Thursday, Government House leader Steven MacKinnon faced many questions about the Liberals' fast-tracking of C-22. "Every...
MONTREAL -- The son of former Quebec premier Jean Charest will be running for the Liberals in the fall provincial election.
Analysts say the Conservatives need the NDP to do markedly better than they did during the last election
Prime Minister Mark Carney is shifting gears today as he goes from one of the world's largest political events to the world's biggest sporting event. Carney is just back from the G7 Summit in France meeting with top world leaders, and is in Vancouver today where he'll attend the World Cup match between Canada and Qatar. Before that, the prime...
The federal and British Columbia governments are following through on a promise to help the community of Tumbler Ridge rebuild by pledging $100 million each for the community to build a new school. The current school was the scene of one Canada’s deadliest mass shootings. “A new school for bright kids to learn, grow, and dream. Better facilities for the...
Poilievre has failed to galvanize his 2025 coalition by arguing that Carney has been a failure. And the NDP voters no longer look like they would only vote Liberal to avoid a Conservative government.
A new leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. may have changed the face of the opposition, but new data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds the governing BC NDP's larger problem is not who sits across the aisle. British Columbians are three times as likely to say the province is on the wrong track (60%) as the right...
They were the kind of words a parent might say to convince a child scrunching his nose at his birthday present that it’s really what he wanted: “I thought you’d actually like that.” In this case, the Prime Minister of Canada was speaking to the President of the United States. Mark Carney was trying to convince Donald Trump that a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney apparently has a patience problem. According to the Toronto Star’s Althia Raj, sources within the party complain that he raises his voice (or he yells, depending on the receiver) and openly shows his displeasure when caucus discussions veer into what he considers political navel-gazing. To career politicians accustomed to consensus-building, this behaviour feels abrasive. It is...
The federal government has launched a consultation on its direct funding supports for the news media industry. In a statement to The Wire Report, a spokesperson for the Department of Canadian Heritage confirmed Ottawa has conducted “targeted stakeholder engagement activities” with news companies, magazine publishers, and Indigenous media groups, which started during the spring.
Mitchell Tremblay was 11 when he first felt he wanted to die. He says he “would chicken out” at every attempt. Now 43, says he still feels he wants to die, “sometimes.” He has spent about half his life in terrible conditions on the street, with seven bouts of homelessness in Toronto and Guelph, Ont. About five years ago, while...
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon’s recent acknowledgment that new legislation may be needed to accelerate approvals for major projects is an admission of long-standing failure. Canada’s regulatory system for infrastructure and resource development has become slow, uncertain, and politicized. While Ottawa now speaks of one or two year approval windows and continues expanding entities like the Major Projects Office, deeper...
Well, we now know how many Dani Dollars Albertans are getting. Albertans 18 and older who've filed their taxes and have a household income of $225,000 a year or less will score a tax-free $100. Just so you know, the Alberta government considers a household to be a single person or two people who are married or in a common-law...
US President Donald Trump may have finally found a way out of the war he started with Iran. No, it doesn’t come close to regime change, which was one of the Trump administration’s initial justifications for the war. There isn’t even a return of political prisoners, constraints on the country’s proxy forces in the Middle East or an end to...
The anti-Trump view of world affairs, dictated this week by the Iranian mullahs, will hold that U.S. President Donald Trump has surrendered. It is worth remembering that when Hamas invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others on Oct. 7, 2023, Iran was well on its way toward developing nuclear weapons, hoped that the Hamas invasion of...
One of the downsides of being prime minister is that the job doesn’t come with much vacation. Mark Carney will likely be relieved to see the House of Commons adjourn for the summer in the coming days, but he will be heading into vacation season with several storm clouds on the horizon.
The reviews have not been kind. “A disaster.” A “catastrophe.” The “worst strategic blunder the U.S. has made post-World War II.” Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion and trenchant geopolitical observer, perhaps said it best: “Trump said he demanded unconditional surrender, we just didn’t know he meant America’s.” What they are describing, of course, is the Trump-Iran “deal,” or...
There are many things the Carney government needs to achieve its economic ambitions: global allies, foreign direct investment, intergovernmental collaboration and a skilled labour force.
Step right up. Read all about it. Here it comes. Dani Dollars. Yes, Dani Dollars will be rolled out Wednesday by Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government. Of course, Dani Dollars isn't the official name of Smith's doling out the dough, just like Ralphbucks wasn't the official name when money was headed your way back in the day.
In the inevitable hot-mic moment at this week’s G7 in Evian, France, Prime Minister Mark Carney summarized for President Donald Trump Canada’s new electric vehicle arrangement with China. Carney is overheard reassuring Trump that there’s a cap of 49,000 Chinese EVs imported under the deal. But the real story of how China’s global auto-industry ambitions are playing out in Canada...
Mark Carney made the mistake of hiding behind Doug Ford, during the push for an expansion to Billy Bishop airport. And as a result, the prospect of jets and millions more passengers flying onto and off the Toronto Islands every year — which the prime minister seemed initially to want — is looking more unlikely by the day.
Is there hope for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)? For over a year, Canada-U.S. trade talks have been testy at best, in a deep freeze at worst. U.S. President Donald Trump mocked us as the “51st state,” put tariffs our steel, aluminum and autos, and claimed that America doesn’t need anything we’re selling. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that Canada...
Mark Carney says there’s “no big drama” in the fact that the Trump administration has taken a $6.4-billion bridge hostage as part of its campaign to have its way with Canada. In this, at least, the prime minister is wrong. The troubled saga of the Gordie Howe International Bridge is a real-life drama. The question is: what type?
For a guy who spent much of his career talking and writing about climate policy, Mark Carney has been conspicuously quiet on the subject ever since becoming prime minister. Part of that, I’m sure, is a desire to avoid the mistakes made by the last guy who had his job. And part of it is an understandable need to prioritize...
In less than two weeks Alberta is expected to deliver to the federal government a solid proposal for a pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. But so far there is no private sector partner willing to come forward to pay for it. This is definitely a fly in the ointment of a proposal that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has...
The Carney government shut down a committee study Monday on a financial bill that includes sweeping changes to Canada’s pesticides law by allowing cabinet to overrule any pesticide ban the health minister imposes for being too toxic to the environment. The Liberals blame the Conservatives for filibustering the committee — which they have. But the Grits are impatient, want to...
The Conservative party wants you to picture lineups around the block for Canada’s overwhelmed food banks. To help, they’ve used AI to generate a false scene. Rather than appreciate the helpful visuals, we should make clear: This sucks.
As the October Alberta referendum looms closer, politicians representing the province are discovering the joys of needle threading. The most vivid example was Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s June 8th Calgary speech, in which the Alberta born-and-raised, more recently Alberta-elected MP, presented an argument to the province’s separatists for remaining in Canada. “The answer therefore for Albertans is not to pull...
The lesson is the welfare-vs-warfare debate is an irrelevancy and western societies need to be more resilient in an age of rising threats
How is Ottawa to manage the relationship with our closest neighbour and most important trading partner? There are essentially three options for dealing with the rogue president currently in the White House.
“Fake it ‘til you make it.” The motto that’s most popular among young entrepreneurs trying to bootstrap their way to success is also, apparently, the strategy being deployed by the Alberta government in its ongoing attempt to get a new oil pipeline to the West Coast. As Minister of Indigenous Relations Rajan Sawhney let slip a few days ago, her...
It's not even close. It's not even close to being close. We wait for them to make a move, do something, try to win the hearts and minds of the undecided, answer the actual questions on people's minds. Heaven knows the separatists have the attention of Canada now. Newshounds can tell you how every single day story-hungry editors want the...
In a world riven with strife, with democracy and dignity under daily assault in the United States by its president, and with global hegemons rejecting the sovereignty of nations, Canadians should take careful stock of what we have and who we are. Canada is blessed with vast geography, abundant natural resources and an educated and diverse population. We have the...
There are times when you feel the ground shift because something genuinely historic is underway. That was my reaction Monday morning watching Louise Arbour installed as Canada’s 31st Governor General. It was a defining, quintessentially Canadian experience, not just for the pageantry, the 21-gun salute, or the high ceremony of passing the torch. What made it remarkable was the passage...
EDMONTON -- The executive director of Premier Danielle Smith's office says that instead of criticizing her, First Nations chiefs should fix their own communities, describing them as entrenched in poverty, drugs and violence.
A women's advocacy organization and several other groups that support gun control are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to fully implement a key facet of firearms legislation passed 30 months ago. The measure makes a person subject to a protection order -- a legal order often issued in intimate partner violence cases -- ineligible to hold a firearms licence while...
Multiple sources confirmed to National Post that the two candidates being considered are Glenn Joyal and Anna Loparco.
Longtime Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall will be stepping down at the end of August, fast-tracking her leave from Parliament after she announced last summer she wouldn’t run in the next election. “Although my intent when I first announced my plans to step down as the MP for Yorkton-Melville was to continue to represent the wonderful people of our riding until...
Poilievre has failed to galvanize his 2025 coalition by arguing that Carney has been a failure. And the NDP voters no longer look like they would only vote Liberal to avoid a Conservative government.
Former Liberal MP and MPP Han Dong says he's running for Toronto city council.
CALGARY -- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is suggesting it may be too late to put an anti-coal mining petition question to a provincewide referendum this fall.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would rather not have the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement in place and offered a confusing message on the trade pact's future. "We do better without that agreement," Trump told reporters in France, where he was attending the G7 summit. The continental trade agreement, known in Canada as CUSMA, is up for mandatory review but...
Premier Danielle Smith is offering Albertans a one-time payment of $100 to help pay their bills. She says the payment will be made instead of the province reducing its tax on gasoline at the pumps. People can start applying for the payments starting July 1.
TABER -- The controversy over a town billboard urging Alberta leave Canada has now mushroomed into three signs.
Former U.S. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has joined B.C. mineral exploration company NovaRed Mining Inc. in a strategic advisory role. The company says Noem, who is special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, will support NovaRed's mission of acquiring and advancing critical mineral exploration opportunities. NovaRed chief executive Brian Goss says Noem's experience working across government and industry...
An RCMP officer based in Quebec has been charged with uttering threats online toward U.S. President Donald Trump while he was deployed to oversee security operations at the G7 summit last year in Alberta. According to the RCMP, the officer, 34-year-old Evenson Dumerlus of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., allegedly posted a video on his Snapchat account “in which he made threatening comments”...
Canada can 'deliver significant additional capacity,' G7 leaders say. Canada is poised to become a key and reliable supplier of energy to the G7 after leaders meeting in France embraced this country's potential to deliver "significant additional capacity" to global markets to reduce dependence on oil and gas coming through the Strait of Hormuz. "We commit to accelerate the diversification...
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says the "fracturing" relationship between Canada and the United States needs to be restored to ensure security in both countries. Mullin made the comments during a fireside chat with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in Washington today. Mullin, who was confirmed to his position in March, says arguments between the two countries only expose...
Canada will do what it can to help implement the peace deal between the United States and Iran, including possibly helping as a third-party moderator overseeing how funds are used to end the war Washington started alongside Israel. "Canada is of course willing to help, if that's appropriate," Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Wednesday as the G7 summit in...
A Senate committee report says CBC-Radio-Canada's news and current affairs content should be periodically analyzed by outside experts "in order to assess its fairness and balance." The Senate's transport and communications committee released a report called "Local News Matters" today after hearing from more than 60 witnesses. It calls for local programming to be added to CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate and for...
The agreement between Iran and the US lays out the terms of the ceasefire between the bitter rivals, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, some financial relief for Iran and a reiteration from Tehran that it will never produce a nuclear weapon, according to a draft copy of the text obtained by CNN.
Nearly four years after a statutory review of the act that created a national security oversight body of parliamentarians was supposed to take place, it remains unstarted, with the federal government indicating it will finally begin later this year. The bill that created the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) was passed in 2017. It set out that...
The Conservative Party’s first official foray into artificially generated political communications content has sparked sustained debate over whether its use is “good, bad, or ugly” since it was released nearly two weeks ago. But strategists say that whatever voters’ opinions are, the video represents a step into new territory for a technology that, for better or worse, is likely to...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he had several informal discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump during the G7 summit in France, despite not having an official meeting. Carney told reporters during the final day of the summit Wednesday that the president only had scheduled bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While Macron is...
After the U.S. and Iran say they’ve reached a tentative deal to end the war, Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling the conflict “worth it.” Carney made the remarks in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France on Tuesday, when asked directly if the war was “worth it in Canada’s view.” “I’ve always believed...
Immigration Minister Lena Diab says having a Canadian ancestor does not guarantee someone is eligible for Canadian citizenship. Diab was pushed in question period Tuesday by Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner to state how many people got proof of citizenship under the new citizenship-by-descent law using inaccurate documents. An unknown number of people who received citizenship certificates under the...
Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he will take time over the summer to review the work of a committee tasked with determining whether Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness access to medically assisted dying. Committee co-chair Marcus Powlowski said last week the report would be presented to Parliament on Wednesday to ensure it's in the government's hands...
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said talks with his American counterpart on a critical continental trade pact are not a "one-way conversation" as the United States continues to signal it will not rubber-stamp an extension. LeBlanc and Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette met with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the G7 in France on Tuesday...
The Conservatives are accusing the federal government of trying to ram through a bill to help police and spies after the Liberals warned they would take steps to speed up committee scrutiny of the legislation. The Liberals say the bill will ensure law enforcement agencies have the legal tools to prevent and investigate modern crime while respecting the Charter of...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford shrugged off a recent poll suggesting his popularity has dipped as “fake” Tuesday, claiming he and his PC Party would win a fourth “massive majority” if an election were held today. “I don’t like boasting and bragging, but if an election was held today – we’re at 41 per cent – we’d win a massive majority...
‘I was becoming a tool to justify some of the things the government is doing, which I find to be unjustifiable,’ Canada’s former environment minister Steven Guilbeault says on leaving the Liberals — in an exclusive interview with The Narwhal
Conservative MP Corey Tochor introduced new legislation on Tuesday to legalize prescribing psychedelics like psilocybin (colloquially known as magic mushrooms), which researchers and patients say can effectively treat some mental health disorders. Under Canada's federal drug laws, psilocybin is a controlled substance and possession, production and distribution are illegal without authorization.
Leaders spoke about deal to allow some Chinese EVs into Canada at lower tariff rate. Prime Minister Mark Carney may not have a bilateral meeting planned yet with U.S. President Donald Trump, but a hot microphone caught them talking about trade at the G7 leaders’ summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. Carney can be seen on camera, leaning in to talk to...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday yet almost half the central bank's policymakers said they could support a rate hike later this year, an unexpectedly aggressive outcome that would disappoint President Trump and suggests heightened concerns about persistent inflation.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Republican lawmakers in Georgia said Wednesday that they won't redraw congressional and state legislative districts for the 2028 elections during a special session called by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump last year that he was the "greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House."
SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and longtime political rival of Republican President Donald Trump, said Monday the president ordered the Justice Department to investigate him and his wife.
Canada can 'deliver significant additional capacity,' G7 leaders say. Canada is poised to become a key and reliable supplier of energy to the G7 after leaders meeting in France embraced this country's potential to deliver "significant additional capacity" to global markets to reduce dependence on oil and gas coming through the Strait of Hormuz. "We commit to accelerate the diversification...
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says the "fracturing" relationship between Canada and the United States needs to be restored to ensure security in both countries. Mullin made the comments during a fireside chat with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in Washington today. Mullin, who was confirmed to his position in March, says arguments between the two countries only expose...
Canada will do what it can to help implement the peace deal between the United States and Iran, including possibly helping as a third-party moderator overseeing how funds are used to end the war Washington started alongside Israel. "Canada is of course willing to help, if that's appropriate," Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Wednesday as the G7 summit in...
The agreement between Iran and the US lays out the terms of the ceasefire between the bitter rivals, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, some financial relief for Iran and a reiteration from Tehran that it will never produce a nuclear weapon, according to a draft copy of the text obtained by CNN.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Tuesday that Canada will impose new sanctions against Russia as its war in Ukraine continues. Carney made the announcement during a meeting at the G7 summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The package will target 162 individuals, entities and vessels — all assets of the Russian war machine.
Canada’s impact assessment process is structurally fragmented. A new AI-enabled Sovereign Impact Assessment Agent (SIAA) would speed up assessments and save money by using the federal government’s extensive but fragmented troves of data on Canadian land, water, wildlife and atmosphere to pre-populate assessment applications, identify information gaps and help inform regulators’ final decisions.
On June 12th, the American artificial intelligence company Anthropic —maker of the Claude AI assistant— issued an extraordinary statement, whose opening paragraph reads as follows: “The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Secrecy surrounding cabinet documents is so absolute in Canada that critics look to theology and astrophysics for metaphors to describe it. Federal cabinet records in Canada are treated as “sacred artefacts to be shrouded in mystery for decades, hidden in a black hole beyond the contemplation of judges, commissioners, or citizens.”
In 2007, Roger Martin, then dean of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, wrote a book called The Opposable Mind. It argued that the most successful leaders tend to be “integrative thinkers,” by which he meant they tackled problems holistically rather than breaking them down into component parts. Instead of seeking trade-offs, they are at ease with...
“Despite the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries…Lebanon moved forward with the ban on antipersonnel landmines,” said the Ottawa-based group Mines Action Canada in a statement, celebrating the new addition.
A five-month summer vacation doesn't sound too shabby, especially following a winter vacation that lasted more than three months. That's the case for the members of the Ontario provincial government, as Premier Doug Ford sent the MPPs on an extended break before rejoining for the fall session. He says he'd rather have his members out in the community, engaging with...
Canada’s Online Streaming Act is a thorn in the side of the U.S. administration. The law, passed in 2023, brings streaming platforms like Netflix, Paramount and Disney under Canada’s broadcast regulations, and requires them to support and promote Canadian content. But the implementation of the law has been slow, and the regulator, the CRTC, has been taken to court by...
What's with the Conservatives using AI-created Canadians in their latest ad campaign? Plus, in this final Raj-Russo Conversation before the summer break, Althia and Rob suggest what each of the main parties needs to do over the holidays. Also, the G7 meets; will it accomplish anything?
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
